100 Bible Verses about Self Sacrifice

John 15:13 ESV / 497 helpful votes

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

Philippians 2:3-4 ESV / 254 helpful votes

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Romans 12:1 ESV / 176 helpful votes

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

John 12:25 ESV / 133 helpful votes

Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

John 3:16 ESV / 128 helpful votes

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

1 Corinthians 13:7 ESV / 113 helpful votes

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Matthew 10:39 ESV / 103 helpful votes

Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3 ESV / 67 helpful votes

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

1 John 3:16 ESV / 66 helpful votes

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

Ephesians 5:25 ESV / 61 helpful votes

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,

John 13:34 ESV / 60 helpful votes

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.

1 Corinthians 13:4 ESV / 55 helpful votes

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant

Galatians 6:9 ESV / 54 helpful votes

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

1 John 4:8 ESV / 53 helpful votes

Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Mark 10:45 ESV / 51 helpful votes

For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Galatians 2:20 ESV / 50 helpful votes

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Hebrews 13:15 ESV / 42 helpful votes

Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.

1 Corinthians 16:1-24 ESV / 42 helpful votes

Now concerning the collection for the saints: as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do. On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come. And when I arrive, I will send those whom you accredit by letter to carry your gift to Jerusalem. If it seems advisable that I should go also, they will accompany me. I will visit you after passing through Macedonia, for I intend to pass through Macedonia, ...

Hebrews 12:1-29 ESV / 41 helpful votes

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. ...

Colossians 3:14 ESV / 41 helpful votes

And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

1 John 4:7 ESV / 39 helpful votes

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

Hebrews 13:15-16 ESV / 37 helpful votes

Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

Philippians 2:17 ESV / 37 helpful votes

Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.

Luke 9:23 ESV / 37 helpful votes

And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

Philippians 2:5-8 ESV / 35 helpful votes

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Psalm 51:17 ESV / 33 helpful votes

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Ephesians 5:1-2 ESV / 32 helpful votes

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Matthew 9:13 ESV / 31 helpful votes

Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Ephesians 5:2 ESV / 29 helpful votes

And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Romans 12:1-2 ESV / 29 helpful votes

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Matthew 16:24-25 ESV / 29 helpful votes

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Romans 12:1-21 ESV / 28 helpful votes

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. ...

Luke 9:23-24 ESV / 28 helpful votes

And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

2 Samuel 24:24 ESV / 28 helpful votes

But the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.

Acts 17:10-11 ESV / 27 helpful votes

The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

Hosea 4:6 ESV / 27 helpful votes

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.

Matthew 10:38 ESV / 25 helpful votes

And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

1 John 3:16-18 ESV / 24 helpful votes

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

Hebrews 13:16 ESV / 24 helpful votes

Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

Luke 14:27 ESV / 24 helpful votes

Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

Hebrews 11:24-27 ESV / 23 helpful votes

By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.

Galatians 5:16-17 ESV / 23 helpful votes

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

1 Corinthians 13:13 ESV / 23 helpful votes

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Romans 3:25 ESV / 23 helpful votes

Whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.

Luke 22:42 ESV / 23 helpful votes

Saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”

Luke 14:33 ESV / 23 helpful votes

So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

Matthew 16:24 ESV / 23 helpful votes

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

Matthew 12:7 ESV / 23 helpful votes

And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.

Proverbs 21:3 ESV / 23 helpful votes

To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.

1 John 2:2 ESV / 22 helpful votes

He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

1 Peter 4:8 ESV / 22 helpful votes

Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

Titus 2:14 ESV / 22 helpful votes

Who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

Galatians 5:1-26 ESV / 22 helpful votes

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. ...

Acts 2:44-45 ESV / 22 helpful votes

And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.

Luke 9:24 ESV / 22 helpful votes

For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

Matthew 10:37 ESV / 22 helpful votes

Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

1 John 4:20 ESV / 21 helpful votes

If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

1 Peter 2:5 ESV / 21 helpful votes

You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 13:5 ESV / 21 helpful votes

Or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;

Romans 6:13 ESV / 21 helpful votes

Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.

John 3:1-36 ESV / 21 helpful votes

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. ...

1 Samuel 15:22 ESV / 21 helpful votes

And Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.

2 John 1:6 ESV / 20 helpful votes

And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it.

1 Corinthians 13:6 ESV / 20 helpful votes

It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

Matthew 22:39 ESV / 20 helpful votes

And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

2 Corinthians 4:10-11 ESV / 19 helpful votes

Always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

Romans 8:3 ESV / 19 helpful votes

For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,

John 12:24-25 ESV / 19 helpful votes

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

Luke 22:15 ESV / 19 helpful votes

And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.

Leviticus 2:2 ESV / 19 helpful votes

And bring it to Aaron's sons the priests. And he shall take from it a handful of the fine flour and oil, with all of its frankincense, and the priest shall burn this as its memorial portion on the altar, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord.

1 Peter 2:4-5 ESV / 18 helpful votes

As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 12:1 ESV / 18 helpful votes

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

Hebrews 11:36-38 ESV / 18 helpful votes

Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

Hebrews 10:34 ESV / 18 helpful votes

For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.

2 Timothy 2:3-4 ESV / 18 helpful votes

Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.

Colossians 2:8 ESV / 18 helpful votes

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

Philippians 3:8 ESV / 18 helpful votes

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ

2 Corinthians 12:15 ESV / 18 helpful votes

I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less?

2 Corinthians 11:23-29 ESV / 18 helpful votes

Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. ...

2 Corinthians 8:1-5 ESV / 18 helpful votes

We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints— and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us.

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV / 18 helpful votes

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

1 Corinthians 15:30-31 ESV / 18 helpful votes

Why are we in danger every hour? I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day!

John 19:25-30 ESV / 18 helpful votes

But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home. After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. ...

Luke 17:33 ESV / 18 helpful votes

Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.

Matthew 19:21 ESV / 18 helpful votes

Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”

Revelation 20:4 ESV / 17 helpful votes

Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

1 John 4:17 ESV / 17 helpful votes

By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.

2 Peter 3:18 ESV / 17 helpful votes

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

Ephesians 4:13 ESV / 17 helpful votes

Until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,

Romans 13:10 ESV / 17 helpful votes

Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Romans 12:10 ESV / 17 helpful votes

Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.

John 12:24-26 ESV / 17 helpful votes

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

Luke 5:27-28 ESV / 17 helpful votes

After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.” And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.

Mark 8:34-35 ESV / 17 helpful votes

And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it.

Matthew 6:10 ESV / 17 helpful votes

Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Micah 6:8 ESV / 17 helpful votes

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

1 John 5:3 ESV / 15 helpful votes

For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.

Mark 15:21-32 ESV / 15 helpful votes

And they compelled a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross. And they brought him to the place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull). And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. And they crucified him and divided his garments among them, casting lots for them, to decide what each should take. And it was the third hour when they crucified him. ...

Hebrews 10:1 ESV / 14 helpful votes

For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.

1 Corinthians 15:3-4 ESV / 14 helpful votes

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,

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